


Drink to the Foam

by glorious_spoon



Category: Agent Carter (TV)
Genre: Aftermath, Banter, Drowning, Established Relationship, Hospitals, Hurt/Comfort, Multi, Rescue, Shipwrecks
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-10
Updated: 2018-05-10
Packaged: 2019-05-04 22:33:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,180
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14603136
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/glorious_spoon/pseuds/glorious_spoon
Summary: Jack is fine. He's going to be fine.





	Drink to the Foam

**Author's Note:**

  * For [WhiteLadyoftheRing](https://archiveofourown.org/users/WhiteLadyoftheRing/gifts).



“Yes, quite. Do keep us apprised of any further developments. Thank you,” Peggy said, and slammed the phone down with such force that he knew that it would be bad news before she even turned around.

Sure enough, when she did turn her face had taken on a brightly plastic expression, stiff and fragile, like if she moved too much it might shatter into pieces on the worn linoleum floor. Daniel could see her throat work as she swallowed, and he saved her the trouble of forcing herself to say it. “There’s no news, is there.”

“No,” Peggy said shortly. Her lips pinched together, then smoothed as she squared her shoulders and marched into the tiny kitchenette. “Shall I fix us a both a cup of tea? Or if you’d prefer coffee, I believe there’s a packet of instant powder—”

“Peggy,” Daniel said gently, coming in behind her and setting a gentle hand on her arm. Her hands were twisting together, fingers fiddling at her wedding ring, turning the polished gold circle around and around so that the tiny diamond chip caught the light in sparkling flashes. “He’ll be okay. They’ll find him.”

She turned to look at him, and just like that her expression fractured, crumpling in an instant. Her hand trembled on the tea kettle, and she set it hurriedly down on the stovetop. “Daniel—”

“They’ll find him,” Daniel repeated, with every ounce of stubborn hope he could summon, and opened his arms. She didn’t so much hug him as collapse against him, her clothes still damp, her hair still smelling of seawater, her small, strong hands fisted in his equally damp undershirt. Daniel wrapped his free arm around her and hugged back just as hard, rested his cheek against the top of her head, and tried hard not to think, _at least she made it out, at least I haven’t lost them both—_

He hadn’t lost anyone. They would find Jack. They would. They’d find Jack, and he would be okay. Jack was always okay. He was too damn stubborn to be anything else.

They clung together for what felt like an age before Peggy finally stepped back, patting at her disheveled hair. Daniel didn’t mention it, didn’t mention the dampness around her eyes either, just watched her yank a practiced smile back onto her lips. “Of course they will.”

* * *

Breathe in. Breathe out. Keep his head above water. His world had narrowed down to the essentials: mindless animal survival, nothing more. There was no room to think of anything else. No room to worry about whether or not Peggy and Daniel had made it out—

Jack cursed under his breath, lifted his chin, and forced his leaden arms to keep moving. He was a strong swimmer, but the cold water leached the heat from his body and the strength from his limbs. He’d already been treading water for hours, and if he didn’t find something— some piece of wreckage, an outcropping, _anything_ to hang onto— he wasn’t going to manage it for much longer. He’d disappear beneath the choppy waves, and they’d never find the body.

Probably would serve him right, but like hell was he going out like that. Like hell was he doing that to Peggy and Daniel.

Breathe in. Breathe out. Keep his head above water.

Breathe in. Breathe out—

He was so focused on the internal mantra that he barely even noticed the sudden brightness of searchlights cutting through the darkness, strange voices rising and falling in the distance, words without meaning.

Breathe in—

Arms slid under his shoulders, the sudden foreign press of another body close to his so shocking that he lost the rhythm of his strokes, flailed, and went under. Just for an instant, and then he was hauled upward, breaking the surface to white lights and the enormous black bulk of a ship against the dark sky.

“Easy, Lieutenant,” the man said. “We’ve got you. Let’s get you out of here.”

“Best idea I’ve heard all day,” Jack gasped, and let himself go limp as his rescuers hauled him up onto the lifeboat.

* * *

Peggy smashed through the double doors like a freight train, sending them crashing into the walls and making the on-duty policeman and the young woman at the nurse’s station jump as she crossed the room in long strides, Daniel trailing in her wake. “Where is he?”

“Ah— Miss, you can’t be in here—”

“I think you’ll find that I can,” Peggy snapped, digging in her pocket and slapping her waterlogged badge down on the desk. “You _will_ let us in to see Agent Thompson, or—”

“Miss,” the officer interrupted, “I’m going to have to ask you to calm down. Just take a seat, let me talk to the agent in charge—”

“Actually,” Daniel said mildly, when the man’s gaze flicked up to him. “She’s the agent in charge. I’d recommend you do what she says.”

The man blanched. He raised his eyes slowly back up to Peggy’s face, and Daniel could almost see the gears turning, looking beyond the dark hair dried in unkempt straggles around her shoulders, the ruined suit and torn hose and manic expression. Finally, he stammered, “Dir-director Carter, I didn’t recognize you. My apologies, ma’am. Of course you can go right in.”

“Thank you,” Peggy said, magnificently disdainful. She plucked her badge off of the desk and marched down the hallway without a backward glance. The cop gave Daniel a wide-eyed glance as he followed at a more sedate pace, and Daniel gripped the handle of his crutch tightly, willing himself not to crack up until they were out of sight.

Peggy was waiting for him at the end of the hallway, and the arch of her eyebrow said that he wasn’t doing a very good job of hiding his smirk. “Coming?”

“Good grief, Peg, I think you gave the poor guy a heart attack.”

“It’s not my fault he’s entirely lacking in observational skills,” she said archly, and that was it, he was done, he was laughing so hard that he had to brace himself on the door frame with his free hand. It wasn’t just the faint, pleased smirk on Peggy’s lips or the flabbergasted officer she’d just left in her wake, it was— it was everything, it was this day, the sinking, the crash, this _whole goddamn day—_

And Jack was okay. He was here at the hospital, and he was okay.

His breath was sobbing in his chest, and he didn’t even notice until Peggy’s arms came around him. “Breathe,” she murmured. “Just breathe, Daniel. Take your time.”

“Aw, shit,” Daniel gasped. "God damn it." And then, belatedly remembering where he was and who he was talking to, “Sorry.”

“I’ve heard worse,” Peggy murmured, which was certainly true. “I’ve said worse, for that matter. Are you alright now?”

“Aces,” Daniel managed, which was a lie that he knew she’d see right through, but she didn’t comment on it. “Let’s go.”

* * *

Jack’s room had a guard posted outside it, which might have looked like overkill to anyone who didn’t live their kind of lives. At least the guy knew Peggy on sight, so they managed to get through the door with a respectful salute and a _yes, ma’am_ rather than a demonstration of Peggy’s spectacular right hook.

She came to a halt just inside the door, so abruptly that Daniel nearly crashed into her. Her shoulders relaxed.

“Oh, Jack,” she said, sounding amused.

Over her shoulder, Daniel could see Jack frozen in the act of pulling his wet trousers back on under his hospital gown, his normally perfect hair fantastically disheveled, looking like nothing so much as a schoolboy caught sneaking in after curfew. After a couple of seconds, though, he straightened, grinning, and stripped the gown off entirely, giving the pair of them a view of his lean, pale chest, which was abraded and mottled with painful-looking bruising. A bandage taped across his ribs pulled slightly at the skin, but otherwise he looked— fine. He looked nearly as healthy as he had last night at dinner, before the storm, before the wreck, before he’d shoved the pair of them toward the last lifeboat and disappeared into the howling darkness before they could reach him.

Trust Jack to spend five hours treading water in the middle of the storm-tossed ocean and come up as fresh as a daisy.

“I really hope you two are here to bust me out,” he said. “Or I’m not gonna be responsible for my behavior.”

“When are you ever?” Peggy asked, stepping forward. She cupped his cheeks in both hands and gave him a gentle little shake. “I ought to slap you, after that ridiculous stunt.”

“Yeah, okay, Peggy, I was worried about you too,” Jack said, and wrapped her into a hug, pressing a kiss to her temple. He looked over her head at Daniel. “You miss me, Sousa?”

Daniel gave him a very dry look. “Nope. Not even a little.”

“Yeah, right,” Jack said, grinning. “C’mere.”

Daniel reached back and pulled the door shut behind him, then crossed the room with slow, deliberate steps. Peggy looped an arm around his waist, drawing him into the embrace. Up close, Jack’s face looked bruised and pale, exhausted under the thin veneer of easy charm. He smelled like sea water and hospital antiseptics, and there was still dried salt crusted in his hair.

Daniel gripped his bare hip with his free hand, dragging him closer, pushing his cheek into Jack’s shoulder and breathing him in, warm and safe and _alive._ “You need a shower.”

Jack’s chest quaked slightly as he chuckled, then winced. “Pot, meet kettle.” And then his hand was in Daniel’s hair, tugging gently until Daniel lifted his head. “Come _here_.”

They didn’t usually do this in public, but what the hell— the door was shut and his whole body was still thrumming with the memory of old fear, and he couldn’t stand to wait until they were back in whatever privacy their joined hotel rooms could offer. He tilted his head up and let Jack kiss his mouth, slow and thorough. Beside them, Peggy sighed and burrowed closer, one arm around each of them and her face pressed against Jack’s collarbone so hard that it had to be a little uncomfortable.

When the kiss finally ended, Daniel dropped his head to Jack’s shoulder and pressed his face into his neck, breathing him in. He still didn’t smell all that good, but that was fine. He was _here_ , and that was the important thing. “Yeah, okay,” he said finally, roughly. “Maybe I was a little bit worried about you.”

“Maybe just a little, huh?”

“You better not ever pull anything like that again.”

“Hadn’t planned on it.” Jack pressed a kiss to his temple. “We gonna get out of here, or what?”

“Yes, I suppose we might as well,” Peggy said, pulling back with visible reluctance. “You’re not going to suddenly go into respiratory distress and force us to haul you all the way back over here, are you? Also, where are your shoes?”

“Nothing wrong with me that a good long rest won’t fix,” Jack said. He looked down at his bare feet, and then added, “And, uh, my shoes are at the bottom of the Atlantic right now. Kicked ‘em off. First rule if you go into the water, didn’t they teach you that in the S.O.E.?”

“Really, Jack.” Peggy pressed her lips together in a way that was clearly meant to look disapproving, but didn’t. “Were you planning on making your getaway barefoot?”

“Hadn’t really thought that far ahead,” Jack said sheepishly. “I do have socks around somewhere.”

“Oh, yes, that’s much better,” Peggy said, her lips twitching. “I can see you’ve planned this out with your usual attention to detail.”

“That’s what I have you for,” Jack said, reeling her in for another kiss. A proper kiss this time, deep and lingering. The two of them made a damn pretty picture together, but when Jack’s hand started wandering up the side of Peggy’s dress, Daniel coughed sharply. They both jumped, then looked at him.

“I’m thinking this can wait until we got a room that locks,” he said, grinning, and was rewarded by a matching pair of blushes. Later, back at the hotel, they could strip Jack out of his ruined clothes and take their time with him, reassure themselves in the best way that he was safe and sound. But not here.

Peggy coughed, took a careful step back. “Yes, well. I’ll see about getting you something decent to wear, Jack, and then we can go.”

She patted her disheveled hair, kissed first Jack, then Daniel lightly on the lips, and marched purposefully out of the room. Jack started laughing before the door had even swung shut behind her. “I’m never going to hear the end of this, am I?”

“Not likely,” Daniel said dryly, but he could feel an answering grin stretching his lips, and he couldn’t have stopped it even if he tried.

 


End file.
